a reference, either to His own
divine perfections, or to His offices as the Saviour of sinners. He
himself is the expositor of two of the most remarkable of the symbols.
"The seven stars," says He, "are the angels of the Seven Churches, and
the seven candlesticks which thou sawest, are the Seven Churches."
[264:3]

But though the symbol of the stars has been thus interpreted by Christ,
the interpretation itself has been the subject of considerable
discussion. Much difficulty has been experienced in identifying the
angels of the Seven Churches; and there have been various conjectures as
to the station which they occupied, and the duties which they performed.
According to some they were literally angelic beings who had the special
charge of the Seven Churches. [264:4] According to others, the angel of
a Church betokens the collective body of ministers connected with the
society. But such explanations are very far from satisfactory. The
Scriptures nowhere teach that each Christian community is under the care
of its own angelic guardian; neither is it to be supposed that an angel
represents the ministry of a Church, for one symbol would not be
interpreted by another symbol of dubious signification. It seems clear
that the angel of the Church is a single individual, and that he must
have been a personage well known to the body with which he was connected
at the time when the Apocalypse was written.

It has often been asserted that the title "The angel of the Church" is
borrowed from the designation of one of the ministers of the synagogue.
[265:1] This point, however, has never been fairly demonstrated. In
later times there was, no doubt, in the synagogue an individual known by
the name of the _legate_, or the _angel_; but there is no decisive
evidence that an official with such a designation existed in the first
century. In the New Testament we have repeated references to the
office-bearers of the synagogue; we are told of the rulers [265:2] or
elders, the reader, [265:3] and the minister [265:4] or deacon; but the
angel is never mentioned. Philo and Josephus are equally silent upon the
subject. It is, therefore, extremely doubtful whether a minister with
this title was known among the Jews in the days of the apostles. Even
granting, what is so very problematical, that there were in the
synagogues in the first century individuals distinguished by the
designation of angels, it is still exceedingly doubtful whether the
ang